LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Pacific Gas and Electric said Wednesday night that it has restored power to 97 percent of its customers who were part of a public safety power shutoff activated on Monday night.
The shutoff – which impacted customers across 22 counties, including Lake – was enacted due to red flag weather conditions.
At daybreak on Wednesday – after the all-clear was given for weather conditions – PG&E said it began to patrol equipment and facilities, including more than 10,750 miles of transmission and distribution power lines, for damage or hazards as a result of the high winds.
PG&E said the patrols took place by ground and by air. Due to thick smoke and haze across the region because of numerous wildland fires, the company said it had to pause air inspections initially due to unsafe flying conditions. However, by noon on Wednesday, about half of PG&E’s aircraft were flying patrols.
By Wednesday night, PG&E said it had restored power to nearly 150,000 customers in areas where no wind-related damage was found.
That included all customers in Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Kern, Lake, Lassen, Mariposa, Nevada, Placer, Siskiyou, Sonoma, Tehama and Tuolumne counties.
In Lake County, PG&E said approximately 24 residents – none of them medical baseline customers – were impacted by the shutoff. Power to those customers was cut off early Tuesday morning.
As for those whose power hadn’t yet been turned back on as of Wednesday night, PG&E said they included a group of customers mainly in the Northern Sierra, where the company hasn’t been able to restore electric service due to ongoing threats from wildfires, smoke impeding air patrols and requests from first responders to keep power lines off to assist in firefighting efforts.
PG&E said it will resume its patrol, repair and reenergizaton efforts in those areas as soon as its granted access to do so.
Another 5,000 customers in Butte, Humboldt, Napa, Plumas, Sierra, Trinity and Yuba counties are expected to have power restored by noon on Thursday, once PG&E said it can patrol those areas via helicopter.
Last fall, Lake County was included in two overlapping public safety power shutoffs that left power off to the county for nearly a week.
Since then, PG&E said it was refining its shutoff planning and procedures to reduce both the length of time and the number of customers impacted.
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PG&E restores power to most customers affected by public safety power shutoff
- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On